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Hanoi, Vietnam Well Ross lived up to his promise to introduce the group to Snake Wine. As many of you may know I am absolutely paranoid about snakes - big or little, poisonous or non-poisonous I don't care - I can't even look at a photo of them. So you will understand how I felt when we walked up to the first floor of Highway 4 Restaurant to be greeted by bottles of snakes in snake wine and a huge cobra sitting up in a gigantic bottle of snake wine!!!
There was no avoiding it and I really wasn't expecting it at all - but managed to go up the next flight of stairs to our table. I think it took me 20 minutes to stop shaking and start breathing again. Ross ordered the tray of 'sampler' wines - snake, gecko, seahorse and ginseng wine - I ordered a cocktail "Lady in Red" which I badly needed. Ross ordered a Seafood Hot Pot which arrived in a huge clay pot on a portable gas burner. We then had to add to the vegetable stock the glass noodles, bunches of green vegetables and the prawns, fish and tofu. It was quite delicious and only cost us $6 each which also included all the drinks! As it was only 10 pm, Ross asked if anyone wanted to go onto a Jazz Club - so of course five of us went off to Minh's Jazz Club by taxi (me sitting on Geoff's lap in a tiny Corolla taxi). We could have been anywhere in the world - a mix of age groups in a nice bar/club listening to great jazz musicians. They even had a photo on the wall of Bill Clinton playing the sax when he was in Hanoi. I ordered a Kamikaze as I thought I deserved another cocktail after my earlier shock. The next day in Hanoi was free - so that of course meant shopping. We had earlier bought 18 DVD new release movies in Saigon but thought we could buy a few more - well actually another 29 DVDs and some CD’s - all for $US34. John and Monica who were with us wanted to see the 1880's St Joseph's Cathedral so we decided to join them. On the way we just happened to walk down Hang Bac St (Silver and Gold jewellery street) and then found ourselves on Hang Gai (Silk St) with literally hundreds of shops selling all types of silk. I honestly didn't know there were so many - Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese and raw - in the most amazing and sometimes absolutely stunning designs. But the main thing here is that it is just so cheap, my friend bought a lined raw silk jacket for $US7.00!!!! They will make you anything within a day or two, but I gave it a miss.... in any event I had already purchased a jacket at Hue airport. We went inside the Cathedral where they had a huge banner commemorating Pope John Paul II and also a display of photos of him during all stages of his life. We then decided to return to the KOTO for lunch, opposite the Temple of Literature. The four of us had a prawn bisque, 2 beef steaks and a foccaccia, cake, 6 beers and 4 coffees for $30. It also helps the kids. Earlier we had passed the only department store (with escalators!) in Hanoi so thought we should have a look. It really is just 4 floors of separate shops and the higher you go the cheaper the merchandise - a bit junky really. We walked up Trang Tien Street with its many varied art galleries and took photos of the magnificent Opera House which is a replica of the Paris Opera and built in 1911. We then did a loop around the main lake Hoan Kiem which is the centre piece of the city where the Hanoians gather from early morning doing their exercises to late at night with couples "whispering", a great Vietnamese word used often on the trip. By way of explanation “Whispering” is what we used to do in cars in our youth – the other euphemism popular on the trip was “Karaoke” used to refer to a toilet or Karaoke stop. Tonight is the final night of our trip and Ross has booked us a table at one of the best restaurants, The Emperor. Luckily there are no snakes or snake wine here. The original French villa is on the street frontage and a new extension of 2 storeys is in the back. It is all very open-plan and actually looks to me rather Balinese with the old style ceiling fans and huge trees, birds in cages and fairy lights in all the trees. The food was beautifully presented as usual and very tasty and different again to anything else we had had in Hanoi. On Thursday we departed our Hotel at 3 pm for the airport to catch a domestic flight to HCMC (Saigon) for our flight home. We managed to score the first row in cattle class so had a little more leg room than expected and had some fitful sleep. Would have preferred business class but the extra cost was probably not justified for an eight hour flight. So I hope you have enjoyed my little journal about our trip to Vietnam. Personally it took me a little while to fully appreciate this country. I now have a new respect for what the Vietnamese have suffered over the past 1000 years. I had forgotten what a poor Asian country looked like. It appears dirty because of the ever present 'haze' and the poor condition of the roads, footpaths and buildings, not to mention the thousands of motorbikes and people ever present on the streets. But it really isn't dirty - we have seen people sweeping the paths and gutters continually, also the dirt ground outside their homes and shops. The food was excellent - although there were a few local places that Ross took us into that I know we would not have picked ourselves. Geoff had a few days of 'tummy trouble' but he managed. The weather was hot to very hot in the south in the end of March but cooler in Dalat because it was in the mountains. We only had a light drizzle one night in Hoi An but that didn't bother us at all. Hanoi was in the low to mid 20's. I wouldn't have wanted it to be any hotter as most tourist attractions are up about 100 steps and also a lot of walking is involved if you want to see the history of Vietnam. We certainly enjoyed our trip and are now talking about going with Ross on his new trip to Myanmar (Burma) - but not until next year. |
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